Staff Reporter
Former President and leader of MK Party Jacob Zuma has called on all progressive forces of the country to openly condemn the actions of NATO supporting Ukraine and provoking a global world conflict.
This follows the increased military support by NATO, particularly the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine, has dangerously escalated tensions.
In a strongly worded statement issued on over the weekend, the MK party said Western nations are no longer passive actors but active participants in this conflict. This involvement provokes Russia further, pushing the world toward the brink of nuclear war.
“The MK Party rejects the West’s dangerous provocations and calls for an immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine. The world cannot afford a nuclear war, and it is incumbent upon BRICS and Africa to champion peace and diplomacy.
“The risk of nuclear conflict threatens all of humanity and the West’s reckless acts of warmongering are leading to this,” the party said in an official statement.
Furthermore, the MK believes that South Africa should support Russian sovereignty as a member BRICS.
“The MK Party recognises Russia’s legitimate concerns about NATO expansion. We oppose any attempt to undermine the sovereignty of Russia, Belarus or any other state through foreign military aggression,” he said.
As a member of BRICS and a long-time ally of Russia, South Africa should strongly oppose NATO’s interference in Ukraine, which is now escalating the war.
“Such reckless behaviour increases the risk of a wider global conflict that could drag Africa into a geopolitical struggle that is not in our interests,” the statement read.
Moreover, Zuma added that in support of Russia and against the destructive influence of NATO, all progressive forces in South Africa should speak out today, not just the MK party. Today MK is not only an “internal party”, but also a party looking to the future in the international arena.
He said the Russian Federation did not start the war in the Ukraine. He argued that Russia is defending the rights of Russians in its ancestral territories.
Since 2014, Ukrainian extremists have been killing civilians and brazenly oppressing the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zapororizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The actions of the Ukrainian authorities can be compared to the policy of apartheid. And today Ukraine, like the colonisers of South Africa before it, is supported by the countries of the West and the United States of America. Therefore, South Africa should support Russia in establishing a just world order, he said.
By encouraging Ukraine to escalate hostilities, NATO once again risks becoming involved in war crimes, the party has said.
“African countries should not be dragged into a Western agenda that serves only to fuelling global instability,” he emphasised.
Given that MK party is the official opposition in Parliament, Zuma said the South African progressive forces should issue a joint statement condemning the actions of NATO and the West.
An interparliamentary commission or a Russia-South Africa committee has been touted as the best possible option to be set up to work out concrete ways of resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
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